Hey everyone! I hope you are all doing well! This is the third book by Ottessa Moshfegh I have reviewed. If you want, you can check my reviews for her other books, Lapvona and My Year of Rest and Relaxation. Needless to say, I am a bit of a fan now. I promise I have more “weird girl literature” to read by the end of the year. I’m planning on getting into my horror books so I will be prepared for spooky season. I think that’s enough rambling for now. Let’s talk about Death in Her Hands.

Content Warning: Grief and Mourning, Harm Towards Animals, Discussions of Death

Since her husband’s death, Vesta Ghul has spent her days hiking with her beloved dog. One day, she finds a note in the woods. It reads: “Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn’t me. Here is her dead body.” There is no dead body, though. Vesta becomes obsessed with this note, imagining who Magda might be and who could have killed her. Her morbid fantasies begin to bleed into her everyday life, and Vesta can no longer tell what is read or what she made up. During her search for the truth, Vesta must face the issues she has been hiding from since her husband’s death.

While this novel wasn’t as bizarre or gross as her other books, Ottessa Moshfegh still brings introspection and dark humor in Death in Her Hands. This book is written in a “stream of consciousness” style, which might not be for everyone. It does, however, benefit the reader as we get a better insight into Vesta’s situation as an elderly widow in an isolated town. I found myself drawn into Vesta’s imagination because, as someone with a vivid imagination that gets out of hand, I understood where she was coming from. It is a complicated and unreliable narrative, which I always enjoy. I like how Mosghfegh creates unreliable narrators because it adds a level of realism to the novel. Overall, Death in Her Hands was an interesting book and I am going to give it a soft recommendation.